Monday, April 30, 2012

Tuesday's Township Committee meeting is shaping up to be a lively one with an agenda that includes approval of the Township budget, a controversial tax exemption for the former Universal Chain property at 92 Burnett Ave., and perhaps some discussion of the controversial new glass-enclosed, key-locked Maplewood Village bulletin board.

That's because the Township Committee will hear the proposed budget for the Maplewood Village Alliance, which erected the new bulletin board without public input and will be required to hear public comment on that and any other issues related to the Alliance.

Rusty (Donald) Reeves, the South Orange resident whose race-related comments at a school board meeting earlier this year led to a controversial question at the last school board election debate, donated $700 to the winning campaign of Madhu Pai, Wayne Eastman and Jeff Bennett.

Reeves, who this week penned a lengthy column for PATCH on the issue, reportedly donated the funds in separate contributions, according to campaign disclosure forms filed April 9.

Reeves drew attention initially when a question was submitted and read to the candidates at the Community Coalition on Race forum April 12.

It was related to Reeves' comments about the impact of the achievement gap on black residents during a March 5 school board meeting.

Video of his portion of that meeting is below. Reeves was the second speaker. He hinted that black student underachievement is based on "broadly culture and single-parent families."

On April 12 a question submitted to the candidates forum moderator asked what Jeff Bennett thought of Reeves comments given that Reeves had hosted a coffee event for Bennett, Madhu Pai and Wayne Eastman.

The candidates did not respond, but the incident raised concerns throughout the district for days.

The Community Coalition on Race released a statement soon after seeking to explain itself. Reeves did not respond to a request for comment.

DiVincenzo earns an annual salary $153,207, but also has been collecting an annual pension of $68,856 since 2010 under a controversial state law that allows elected officials to "retire" while still in office. The 59-year-old politician took advantage of the loophole even as he worked behind the scenes with the governor to successfully roll back the health and pension benefits of public employees across the state.

DiVincenzo, a Democrat, defended the move in a Star-Ledgerarticle in the fall, arguing that he was playing by the rules and merely cashing in on his nearly three decades as an employee in the county.

The county executive has also come under fire recently for using his campaign account to pay for lavish meals, rounds of golf and annual trips to Puerto Rico. He says the spending was for legitimate political purposes.

And despite a county policy enacted in 1997 that prohibits him and other administrative employees from amassing any more than 40 vacation days at one time, DiVincenzo is sitting on a stockpile of 101.5 vacation days, according to county personnel records. At his current salary, he could trade in those unused vacation days for a $59,691 payout, records show.

The county’s policy states that nonunion employees may carry over more than one year’s worth of vacation days, but they must take the unused days in the next year or lose them. DiVincenzo gets 20 vacation days a year, which means he can only carry a maximum of 40 vacation days at one time.